Children need a better education in sniffing aromas, a leading historian of smells has said, noting it may improve their wellbeing and help them understand the world around them. Dr Will Tullett, of the University of York, said pollution had been found to impair people’s olfactory abilities, while many objects and substances today – from margarines to car interiors and even our own homes – were stripped of their original smells and “reodourised” with synthetic scents. As a result, Tullett said, there was a need for olfactory education.
He said one approach would be to encourage people to smell more items. And then what they’re doing is expanding their range of reference points. And then I think it’s being able to compare and contrast and think about what are the similarities between different smells.” Tullett said thinking about smells could also help us to understand ourselves, such as why we find some odours comforting, and could provide useful information about the world.
And there could be other benefits. It’s just that they’re not necessarily given the opportunity, or equipped with the language, or even given a sense of confidence that they can talk about it,” he said. Tullett, whose book Sniff: A History of Smells is to be published on 8 September, said a common misconception was that the past was a smellier place.
It just smelled different,” he said. Because it gets the heart of one of the key problems with how we all approach smell, which is smell is so often used to mark difference.” Tullett said smells were still used to discriminate, from landlords refusing to let properties to people of particular ethnicities because of a belief about food aromas, to a proposed bill in the Commons that could have criminalised rough sleepers for “excessive” smells. Tullett said it was important to question why we considered a smell pleasant or not, how those associations may have arisen, and what others may make of it.
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